Brokaw woman relieved after voter I.D. law is struck down

The judge says it unfairly burdens poor and minority voters. His decision invalidates Wisconsin's law. It would have required voters to show a state-issued photo ID at the polls. Supporters said it would cut down on voter fraud. The law was only in effect for a 2012 primary, before a Dane County judge declared it unconstitutional.

Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen says he'll fight the ruling. He released this statement saying, “I am disappointed with the order and continue to believe Wisconsin's law is constitutional. We will appeal.”

This decision is a win for the Brokaw woman who sued the state over the controversial law.

Ruthelle Frank says she's happy with the judge's decision. In 2011, Frank was told she could not vote because she didn't have a valid birth certificate. While Frank knows this isn't the end, she says it is a step in the right direction.

Frank has lived in the same house for 85 years. Throughout the years she's never missed an election. But when Governor Scott Walker signed the law requiring everyone to show a valid birth certificate in order to vote, Frank's voting streak was in jeopardy.

That's when Newsline 9 first introduced you to Frank.

"What's a birth certificate going to prove? I'll never get one,” she said in December 2011.

After that Frank's story went national. She and other people represented by the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state to overturn the law.

Now, a federal judge in Milwaukee has done just that.

So Newsline 9 asked Frank how she felt now that a decision has been made.

“There's gotta be something in this world that's free,” Frank said during a phone interview. “I'm just glad because I worked and thought about you know and all this while I've been thinking it's taken too long to settle it."

Frank has voted in every election since 1948. She says she has no plans to stop, especially now.